Watch the NewsHour, on PBS. It may be a little dry for some, but for wonks like me, it's a little slice of heaven on earth.

To respond to the charges against other media outlets that the Captain has mentioned (and to express my undying love for Jim Lehrer's people):
- Today, they mentioned the Russian intelligence story, attributing it to Putin, etc. (It was short, but seemed complete.)
- No misrepresentation of the 9-11 commission's findings. Because they have a 50 or so minute program with no commercial breaks, they can let the commission speak for itself. They had quite a bit of footage of it yesterday, and a lot of other stuff. Maybe 20 minutes of nice, delicious news.

Overall, the NewsHour tries to stay balanced. I've actually seen them apologize the next day, if one of the previous day's discussions didn't meet their standards for balance. I've only seen it once, but it impressed me to no end. They use AP and ITN videos for a lot of their international coverage, which takes things out of their hands somewhat, but the overall package is pretty good. Sometimes they throw in something artsy and squishy at the end of the program, but even that I can usually handle.

(The only thing that some people might take issue with is their showing of the photos of war dead (given the controversey when Koppel did it.) I didn't see Koppel's thing, but I do watch the NewsHour's releases, and I think they're very well done. There's no voice, just a portrait and some biographical data. Some people might think Lehrer shouldn't do this, but I think they do it pretty well. It feels as if the dead are being honored, rather than paraded.)

I guess the point of this uncharactaristically long and non-cynical/flippant post is that there is still some respectable reporting out there, if you're willing to go without the really fancy graphics and whatnot that the big boys have.

(On the other hand, I won't begin to address the problems with Moyers' NOW program. It is NOT the NewsHour, and I get very upset when PBS promotes them together. :( )

Agree 100% about the Newshour - it's awesome - but my larger problem isn't where I get my news - my larger problem is where most people get their news.

Add this to your warranted cause for hatred.